Scientists Skeptical About Speedy Neutrinos

NOT SO FAST

Updated Apr. 24, 2017 2:49PM ET / Published Sep. 23, 2011 1:49PM ET

AP Photo

Yes, it’s fun to dream about the possibility of time travel, but it’s still just a dream. CERN physicists from the team that measured neutrinos traveling faster than the speed of light presented their data to hundreds of scientists at a laboratory on the Swiss-French border on Friday. Antonio Ereditato, one of the group leaders, presented his findings, which in essence upend the laws of nature and Einstein’s 1905 special theory of relativity. “Everybody knows that the speed limit is c, the speed of light. And if you find some matter particle such as the neutrino going faster than light, this is something which immediately shocks everybody, including us,” said Ereditato. Another theoretical physicist in CERN who was not involved in the experiment said the findings had to be the result of a human error that had so far gone undetected. If the experiment was indeed accurate, he said, the average person “could, in principle travel to the past and kill their mother before they were born.” It’s a wild notion, one that Eriditato and his team say they are being careful not to assert. “We will continue our studies and we will patiently wait for the confirmation,” he told the Associated Press.